Gingrich Campaign $500,000 in Debt for Private Planes Alone

Newt Gingrich's campaign spent $452,000 on private airplanes, making up almost half of the campaign's $1 million debt, The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis reports. Gingrich has blamed his consultants--who quit en masse--on blowing campaign cash, but according to reports filed to the Federal Elections Commission Friday, Gingrich paid almost half a million dollars to the amusingly-named company Moby Dick Airways LTD.

Gingrich now flies commercial, and though that'll save him a bit of money, it won't erase the fundraising report as yet another bit of evidence in an emerging meme: that Gingrich loves to make it rain. He took a beating for having a $250,000 credit line at Tiffany's--and as that mini-scandal died down, he disappeared from the campaign trail. Where did he reappear? On a luxury cruise off the Mediterranean. Then a second Tiffany's credit line was revealed--this one for as much as $1 million. Plus, he has a $1 million five-bedroom mansion in McLean, Virginia--a little too close to Washington to count as Real America. But maybe Gingrich's spendthrift reputation will actually help him with voters. Maybe voters will imagine that if they could convince political donors to give them thousands of dollars, they'd fly on private jets and go on fancy vacations, too.

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.